Football: Would-be Warriors QB finds a home

"McPhee, who led the Fighting Irish to the Golden Horseshoe Bowl high school championship at Rogers Centre last season, says Waterloo and Queen's were '1A and 1B' when he first scouted out universities to attend.

" '(Queen's) has tremendous athletic and academic programs, so I figured I might as well contact them. They showed interest and I'm heading there. I've been accepted.' "

"In Kingston, McPhee will be joined by running back Keith Lagace, a teammate for two Halton and two GHAC titles at Notre Dame. 'I've played football with him since I was six years old. We have a good chemistry. He decided to go there a long time ago. So it works out for both of us.' "

In other words, the Gaels now have a highly touted quarterback with a name ending in y coming out of a high school in Burlington who could eventually replace a highly successful quarterback with a name ending in y who came from a high school in Burlington. Justin Chapdelaine has a year's worth of exposure to Queen's offence, which probably puts him in the lead to replace Danny Brannagan.

It's best just to be happy for McPhee, a second cousin of Waterloo coach-in-limbo Dennis McPhee, and not use this to push any agenda. There is some vague irony that with all the fear-mongering in the wake of the War-roids furore about how CIS is starting to resemble NCAA, the first name player from Waterloo to find a new team lands at a very academic school.

Also of note is the real media have moved on to shinier distractions, but it's early in the game in terms of figuring out what ramifications Waterloo's selfish grandstanding will have on competitive balance in OUA and CIS football. Be happy for McPhee and Queen's, but this is a rich-getting-richer scenario.

In Queen's case, no coach or team should apologize for being able to attract a good player who is a good student (as Pat Sheahanhas done throughout his career). That seems to be what some ivory-tower types want in Canada.

As a tack-on, you likely heard already that Brannagan has been placed on the Toronto Argonauts practice roster to start the CFL regular season. That's progress, presuming the Argos give him a shot to develop, although practice reps can be few and far between for the fourth quarterback.)